The European Union was brought into existence by what Karl Popper called “piecemeal social engineering”. A group of far-sighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised the ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically. That is how the postwar Coal and Steel Community was transformed into the EU – one step at a time, understanding that each step was incomplete and would require further steps in due course.
歐盟(EU)乃是卡爾?波普爾(Karl Popper)稱之為“零打碎敲的社會工程”的產物。一批高瞻遠矚的政治家，心懷建立一個歐洲合眾國的憧憬，同時認識到，這一理想只能通過漸進的方式實現，為此要設定有限的目標，調動實現這些目標所需的政治意愿，并達成協議，各國只需讓出在政治上承受范圍之內的部分主權。二戰后成立的歐洲煤鋼共同體(Coal and Steel Community)正是這樣一步步轉變為歐盟的——政治家們明白，每一步都是不完善的，需要適時采取進一步措施。